OOHNACE^. 469 



divisions ; sestivation imbricated. Petals 4 or 5, spreading or conni- 

 vent into a kind of tube; sestivation twisted. Stamens twice as 

 many as the petals ; filaments arising from scales. Ovary 4-5-lobed, 

 4-5-celled, supported on a gynophore ; ovules solitary ; styles simple ; 

 stigma 4-5-lobed. Fruit indehiscent, consisting of 4 or 5 drupes 

 arranged round a common receptacle. Seeds anatropal, pendulous ; 

 embryo exalbuminous. — Trees or shrubs, with exstipulate, alternate, 

 usually compound leaves without dots. They are found in the tropical 

 parts of America, Asia, and Africa. Authors give 30 genera, and 112 

 species. Examples — Simaruba, Quassia, Picrsena. 



All the plants of the order are intensely bitter. Quassia wood 

 was originally the product of Quassia amara, a tall shrub, never above 

 15 feet in height, inhabiting Surinam, Guiana, and Colombia. It is 

 a very ornamental plant, and has remarkable pinnate leaves, with 

 winged petioles. In their early state the leaves seem to be simple, 

 but in the progress of growth two or more contractions take place, at 

 each of which two leaflets appear, the pairs being separated by a 

 winged midrib, — a continuation of the petiole. This Surinam Quassia 

 does not appear to be exported now, and it is not met with in English 

 trade. The Quassia of the shops is the wood of Picrcena excelsa, a 

 very large forest tree, attaining a height of nearly 100 feet, growing 

 in Jamaica and other West Indian islands, where it is called Bitter 

 Ash, and Bitter Wood. The quantity shipped from Jamaica in 1871 

 was 56 tons. Quassia is used medicinally, in the form of infusion 

 and tincture as a tonic and anthelmintic. It acts as a narcotic poison 

 on flies and other insects. Although prohibited by law, it is fre- 

 quently employed by brewers as a substitute for hops. The bitterness 

 of Quassia is said to be owing to a crystalline principle called Quas- 

 sin. The bark of the root of Simaruba amara or officinalis, a tree 

 found in Cayenne and in the West Indies, is used as a bitter tonic 

 and astringent, more especially in the advanced stages of diarrhoea 

 and dysentery. Brucea antidysenterica was at one time erroneously 

 supposed to furnish false Angostura bark. It has properties similar 

 to those of Quassia. The bark of Samadera indica is bitter and tonic, 

 and contains a principle like Quassia. 



Order 55. — OoHNACEiE, the Ochna Pamily. (Polypet. Hypog.) 

 Sepals 5, persistent, imbricated in sestivation. Petals equal to, or 

 twice as many as the sepals, deciduous, spreading, imbricated in sesti- 

 vation. Stamens 5, opposite the sepals, or 10, or indefinite ; filaments 

 persistent, attached to a hypogynous disk ; anthers bilocular, innate, 

 opening by pores, or longitudinally. Csirpels as many as the petals, 

 seated on an enlarged gynobase (thecaphore) ; ovules erect or pendu- 

 lous, styles united into one. Fruit gynobasic, consisting of several 

 succulent, indehiscent, monospermous carpels. Seeds anatropal, usually 

 exalbuminous; embryo straight; radicle short; cotyledons thick. — 



